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Space Plant Vertical Garden TelePLANTathic

Shane from “Space Plants Vertical Gardening Specialists” approached Substation33 with a problem. He had a “flower power” plant sensor that measured light, temperature, moisture and fertiliser levels and talked to a phone app so you could see how a plant is doing. But if you’re not there with your phone, e.g. you go away for a weekend or on holiday, then you can’t see what’s happening and can’t do anything! So he asked us to help him talk to the sensor and push the data to the internet and help him with his vertical garden project!

Shane built Substation33 two beautiful vertical gardens for the Substation entrance and in exchange, the team here at Substation helped Shane with the software and electronics. We used a Raspberry Pi computer to talk to his sensor and push this data up to the internet. It wakes up and sleeps for part of the day to save power. We also designed a circuit so the pi could control a water pump in the vertical garden from the internet. We used recycled laptop batteries for energy storage and charge these with a solar panel. Shane hopes to run a crowdfunding campaign soon and share his vertical gardens with the world! Perhaps Substation will be making vertical gardens to help him with this if he’s successful! Stay tuned. Get planting!